by Joye Chase

Created on: August 21, 2008   Last Updated: July 21, 2009

The Autumn Spooks of San Diego

San Diego! A beautiful town with wonderful sightseeing attractions and an inexplicable mist of sentimentality. Bright and beautiful in the summer, the more ghostly side of San Diego starts to show itself in the autumn.

Along the harbor, as a slight layer of fall mist starts to settle itself in we find our first spooky attraction. Billowing their sails in the wind, the old ships of ages past shout of another day when pirates ruled the ocean (Yo ho, yo ho). But at the end of all of these treasures of history, we find the most imposing of all, the Midway.

The Midway is a gigantic retired aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. As you walk through this ship you can almost see the soldiers running to and fro, the sound of the airplanes taking off and landing.
And if we turn slightly south we can find a particularly haunting spot of San Diego. The Strand is a beautiful beach that stretches on for mile, just minutes from the border of Mexico. ( So if you see any frantically swimming people in a northbound direction...you get my drift.) The beauty of San Diego is wonderfully accentuated at this spot. Sand dollars and shells just litter its shores so make sure you are wearing something with deep pockets that you don't mind getting sandy.

And of course, who could forget a very creepy place in San Diego. Sea World can get spooky at times too. Those sharks seem to get a little more eery around autumn. I think they prefer warm weather. And though Sea World has recently traded in there spooky Haunted Lighthouse show for a not so spooky 3-D episode of Sesame Street (even though Elmo does kind of creep me out) Sea World is still a must-see spot for tourism. The Shamu show is a little more touchy-feely than it used to be. I don't know about you, but I can't hear any whales talking to me and I'm not about to try. My family's just looking for one more reason to take me away to the funny farm.

But the crown jewel of San Diego is slightly west of the city on nearby Coronado Island. One of the most famous hotels in history, the Del Coronado. A beautiful, imposing Victorian hotel has one of the most haunting stories yet. Supposedly, around the late 1800s a beautiful woman checked into the hotel. She was waiting for her man. When he never showed up she shot herself, making a wonderful story for the hotel to try to freak out their guests. And they do. They make a very blatant point of this woman's death and try to convince you the place is haunted. It works. My family and I had a short stay there last fall, and our entire first day there was permeated with this ghostly tale. At the end of the day we finally settled in and tried to go to sleep. All of a sudden we heard footsteps. More footsteps. The ghost! No, just the people above us. It kept my mom awake all night however.

But summer or fall, winter or spring, San Diego is a highlight of America. It is a wonderful place to experience an invigorating and relaxing vacation. Even though it can get a little spooky.

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